Conventionally, clinical test measurement devices have been used widely in medical institutions, for example. Among the conventional clinical test measurement devices there are devices having a communication function allowing them to transmit, for example, data to computers. Systems are also known in which data or the like are obtained through a measurement device connecting to a personal computer or a host computer, for example, inside a medical institution or connecting to a computer outside a medical institution via a public network or the like such as a telephone line, and gathered in a computer and processed.
A clinical test measurement device carries out measurement using reagents (including test paper and test strips), however, because these are disposable, it was necessary for a user of a clinical test analysis device to manage the inventory and the amount of consumption of these consumables and, predicting when the stock would run out, place purchase orders for an appropriate quantity of consumables at appropriate times.
However, there was the problem of consumables not being supplied in time due to forgetting to place an order or an inadequate transmission of information regarding consumable usage, for example, and this impeded the task of measurement. Also, because reagent makers and consumable suppliers such as wholesales deliver products after an order has been placed by a user of an analysis device, there is the problem that it is necessary for them to secure excess stock in order to prevent running out of items, and this increases their distribution costs.
The present invention was arrived at in order to solve these problems, and it is an object thereof to provide a consumables supply management system that both allows a required and sufficient stock of consumables to be always secured, even if a user of a measurement device does not, for example, manage the inventory of and place orders for consumables, and also allows consumables suppliers to reduce their distribution costs through the optimization of their inventory quantity.